At you shitty fans and students for not supporting his product.
Huggins Rips Fans for Attendance
(Photo: Ben Queen, USA TODAY Sports)
At least once a year, Bob Hugginsshares his thoughts on the Mountaineer attendance, and it's usually not very complimentary. Tonight was that night, but the West Virginia Head Coach was a little more heated about the empty seats than usual while discussing the game with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs.
"We’re ninth in the country. We were sixth in the country, and we want to act like we are a big time program," said Huggins, before listing off others - like Iowa State and Kansas - that routinely sell out their arenas. "I told our guys before the game. We practice every day with nobody in here and if people don’t want to come see us, that's their loss."
Huggins' disappointment wasn't just with the fans commuting from cities around the state - he acknowledged it can be tough, especially with the weather and on a weekday night - but also with the student section. While those that were there were rowdy, it was far from full.
"All this stuff about we have the best student section. No we don’t. The truth is, we don’t," said Huggins. "We put 3,500 tickets out. There weren’t 3,500 students here."
All three home Saturday games in February are already sold out, the Oklahoma game having been so for a couple weeks. While that may seem to debunk Huggins' complains, it actually supports his theory on the attendance and the fans.
"We win a couple games in the NCAA tournament and everyone wants tickets and can’t figure out why they can't get ‘em," he said. "That’s our problem here. People don’t come here to see the Mountaineers. They come to see Kansas or they’ll come to see Iowa State. They don’t come to see us. That was pretty obvious tonight.
"We won 25 games a year ago, made it to the Sweet Sixteen. We’re top ten in the country, and people are picking us to go to the Final Four. If people don’t want to come, then fine, don’t come."
Huggins Rips Fans for Attendance
(Photo: Ben Queen, USA TODAY Sports)
At least once a year, Bob Hugginsshares his thoughts on the Mountaineer attendance, and it's usually not very complimentary. Tonight was that night, but the West Virginia Head Coach was a little more heated about the empty seats than usual while discussing the game with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs.
"We’re ninth in the country. We were sixth in the country, and we want to act like we are a big time program," said Huggins, before listing off others - like Iowa State and Kansas - that routinely sell out their arenas. "I told our guys before the game. We practice every day with nobody in here and if people don’t want to come see us, that's their loss."
Huggins' disappointment wasn't just with the fans commuting from cities around the state - he acknowledged it can be tough, especially with the weather and on a weekday night - but also with the student section. While those that were there were rowdy, it was far from full.
"All this stuff about we have the best student section. No we don’t. The truth is, we don’t," said Huggins. "We put 3,500 tickets out. There weren’t 3,500 students here."
All three home Saturday games in February are already sold out, the Oklahoma game having been so for a couple weeks. While that may seem to debunk Huggins' complains, it actually supports his theory on the attendance and the fans.
"We win a couple games in the NCAA tournament and everyone wants tickets and can’t figure out why they can't get ‘em," he said. "That’s our problem here. People don’t come here to see the Mountaineers. They come to see Kansas or they’ll come to see Iowa State. They don’t come to see us. That was pretty obvious tonight.
"We won 25 games a year ago, made it to the Sweet Sixteen. We’re top ten in the country, and people are picking us to go to the Final Four. If people don’t want to come, then fine, don’t come."
